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Calling Australia Home the Characteristics and Contributions of Australian Migrants Calling Australia home The characteristics and contributions of Australian migrants AMP.NATSEM INcoME ANd WealTh REPort ISSUE 27 - NOVEMBER 2010 CONTENTS Foreword 1 Introduction 2 A nation of migrants 3 Australian immigration past and present 4 Where do our migrants come from? 5 Australian migrants today 8 Migrants at work 14 Migrants and money 21 Migrants and wealth 22 Social participation and subjective wellbeing 25 conclusion 31 References 32 Technical notes 33 Foreword Australia is one of the most multicultural nations in the assets. This may be due to the fact that migrants live in world. Migrants have come here in search of a better life, urban areas where property prices are higher. Meanwhile and in doing so, have fundamentally shaped our culture non-migrant households take the lead in superannuation and our economy. savings and investments, possibly because they may have We are a nation of migrants - a quarter of Australia’s been able to accumulate superannuation and investments population was born overseas, one of the highest over a larger period of time. proportions among all oECD countries. And in 2008 alone Turning to a topic of considerable debate, asylum seekers it accounted for 65 per cent of our population growth. and immigration are two issues which are too often So who exactly is a migrant? Where do our migrants come confused. The report notes that asylum seekers make up from? how have they contributed to the economic growth only a very small proportion of people seeking to settle in of the country? Are many of us, in some way, migrants and Australia. our humanitarian migration program makes what role will migration play in the future? up about 7 per cent of our total migrant intake. Asylum seekers make up around one-fifth or less of this group. This issue of the AMP.NATSEM report, Calling Australia Home, explores the characteristics and contributions of With more and more baby boomers retiring and exiting Australia’s overseas born population, examining aspects of the workforce, the pool of Australia’s skilled workers is the migrant experience including education, work, wealth declining. So rather than making migration a main focus, and wellbeing. it is important for Australia to look at all components of this debate and start planning for the future. Major shifts in Australia’s immigration policy over the years have resulted in a rich and culturally diverse nation. The fact is that along with an ageing population comes The advent of World War II signalled the need to defend fewer workers, more expensive healthcare and fewer tax the country and attract skilled workers, resulting in an payers to fund these costs. With a growing population, influx of immigrants from Europe. The 70s and 80s saw which is inevitable, comes a need for new infrastructure. multiculturalism become a focus with the arrival of Migrants should be seen as a component of future immigrants from South-East Asia. So if we look at the economic growth - the skilled workers and tax payers who fabric of Australian society, this country has most definitely will contribute to funding much needed projects. benefited from the waves of migration. our history shows that Australia has evolved and grown In the last 10 years or so, the emphasis has been on skilled due to the significant changes to migration. The real migration, with the need for immigrants to contribute question now is can Australia adapt to the challenges to the labour force driven by concerns about the ageing posed by population growth and an ageing population? population and skills shortage. Interestingly since 1997 Migrants have made a significant contribution to the migrants under the skill visa category have overtaken those diversity and productivity of Australia. In fact we are under the family visa category. a nation built from the labour, skills and traditions of And this previously led to heightened efforts to attract migrants. It is embedded in our history, has significantly overseas students to Australia. levels of education among contributed to the country’s economic wellbeing and recent migrants tend to match or exceed those of the culture, and undoubtedly migration will play an important Australian-born population. role in shaping Australia’s long-term future. It’s not surprising that migrants in Australia are predominantly of prime working age, with their high level of participation in the labour market one key indicator of their successful integration and contribution to the economy. however, are we fully utilising their skills? When it comes to migrants who were born in non-English speaking countries, apparently not always. despite a higher proportion having Craig Meller tertiary qualifications, 40 per cent of these highly educated Managing director migrants are working in low or medium skilled jobs. So is AMP Financial Services there a disparity with what migrants are qualified to do and what they are actually doing? looking at money, the report also found that migrants are not far behind in terms of wealth and are ahead of their Australian-born counterparts in terms of property-related 1 Introduction “There can be few people in either industrial sustainable? how should Australia respond to asylum or less developed countries today who do seekers? What is the right way for Australia to manage and regulate policies around migrant intake targeting and not have personal experience of migration citizenship? debates around these questions demonstrate and its effects” (castles and Miller 2009, that immigration continues to be a contested area of social page 7). policy, and an ongoing issue of significance. Against the background of the importance of immigration This statement is as true of Australia as of any country in to Australia, the level of interest in this topic and the the world. While Indigenous Australians have lived in this changing profile of Australia’s migrant intake, this issue of continent for many thousands of years, other Australians, the AMP.NATSEM Income and Wealth Report examines the to a greater or lesser extent, are recent arrivals. characteristics and experiences of Australia’s overseas-born Australia’s development as a nation has both been population. We include in our migrant population both influenced by, and in turn has influenced, many those who came to Australia as children and those who generations of migrants. We ourselves have either arrived as adults. experienced arriving here from somewhere else, or have Australia’s migrants are an incredibly varied group, and we heard of our parents’ or grandparents’ immigration organise our analysis of data in this report in ways that try experiences, or we live, work, play sport or maybe go to and take this into account, and to explore these differences school with those who have recently made Australia their further. In most of our analysis we differentiate migrants home. into two groups. First, migrants who were born in the main Australia’s recent history and current landscape is very English speaking countries - canada, New Zealand, Ireland, much one of migration. our growing economy has been the United Kingdom, United States and South Africa - who associated with the need to acquire a bigger skilled labour we refer to in this report as “Born in MESc” and second, force and this is a major reason Australia has welcomed a migrants who were born in non-main English speaking large number of migrants each year. Workers from overseas countries, who we will refer to as “Born in non-MESc”. identify Australia as a land of opportunity. Also, where possible, we divide our data up by gender Immigration is also a topic of considerable public and and age group. We look at a wide range of issues related political discussion: how much immigration is good to Australia’s overseas born population, with a particular for Australia? Are current levels of population growth focus on work, wealth and wellbeing. 2 A nation of migrants A quarter of Australia’s population was born oECD countries sitting at only 11 per cent. our immigrant overseas population is not quite double that of the United States, and more than twice that of the United Kingdom. Today, we are one of the world’s most multicultural Fertility and immigration are the sources of our population countries. The estimated resident population of Australia in growth. over the decade, between 1998 and 2008, the 2008 was 21.4 million people with more than one quarter number of overseas-born residents has increased at a (5.5 million people) being born overseas (ABS 2009b). greater rate than the number of Australian-born residents. As shown in Figure 1, this is one of the highest proportions Immigration in 2008 is the highest contributor to overall of residents born overseas among all oECD countries, population growth, accounting for around 65 per cent of with the average proportion of overseas-born residents for growth. Figure 1 - Overseas born residential population of OECD countries 40 35 36 30 25 25 25 t 20 22 er cen 20 P 15 16 14 14 13 13 13 13 10 11 11 10 10 9 7 7 8 5 6 6 4 4 3 0 0 2 2 * * * c y y g n o* tes ey alia age wa r stria eece ance xic rk Italy tugal eland Spain r str anada inland erland oland Fr ve ealand wede Gr Ir Au Tu epubli epublic F C P Nor S mbour Me a Belgium Po Hungar Au Denmark Germany* xe witz CD ak R S Netherlands Lu New Z United Sta OE Czech R Czech Slov United Kingdom Countries Note: * Refers to countries where the 2007 figures were not available and the latest available data were then used.
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